Liquids, gels, powders and solids are dispensed from containers in various industries for retail, commercial and industrial use. The measurement and centralized tracking of the amounts of materials dispensed is important to a business to control costs, ensure quality control, monitor employee performance, manage inventories, and ensure revenue.
Examples of materials that need to be measured and tracked include liquor, wine, beer, coffee, juices and premixed drinks in the hospitality industry, oil, fluids, materials used in industrial and machine environments, and liquids required in the creation of solutions in the medical and veterinary environments.
In some of the commercial uses of liquids, gels, powders, and solids, dispensing devices use various methods to control or portion the quantities of materials dispensed. In some cases, the amount of materials to be dispensed is not predetermined and is variable based on the arbitrary actions of a human operator or randomly or variably dispensed by a machine.
Therefore, a need exists for better methods and processes for monitoring, measuring, and tracking the dispensing of random and/or variable quantities of a liquid, gel, powder, or solid, and storing that information for various business purposes.